Ndjébbana language

Ndjébbana
Djeebbana
Gunavidji
Region	Northern Territory
Ethnicity	Gunavidji
Native speakers	367 (2021 census)
Language family	Arnhem Maningrida Ndjébbana
Language codes
ISO 639-3	djj
Glottolog	djee1236
AIATSIS	N74
ELP	Ndjebbana

The Ndjébbana language, also spelt Djeebbana and Ndjebanna and also known as Kunibidji (Gunavidji, Gunivugi, Gombudj), is a Burarran language spoken by the Gunavidji (Ndjebbana) people of North-central Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia.

"Gunavidji" (and variant forms) is an exonym used by speakers of Kunbarlang, Kunwinjku and Maung languages.

Phonology

Consonants

	Peripheral		Laminal	Apical
	Labial	Velar	Palatal	Alveolar	Retroflex
Plosive	b~p	k	ɟ~c	d~t	ɖ~ʈ
Nasal	m	ŋ	ɲ	n	ɳ
Rhotic				ɾ~r	ɻ
Lateral				l	ɭ
Approximant	w		j

• Sounds /b, ɟ, d, ɖ/ may also be heard as voiceless [p, c, t, ʈ] when in word-final position or when preceding other stop consonants. They may also occur as geminated, where they are always pronounced as [pː, cː, tː, ʈː].
• /ɾ/ can be heard as either a flap [ɾ] or a trill [r].
• /k/ can be heard as [ɣ] in intervocalic position or when followed by a liquid sound.
• /b/ can be heard as [β] when in intervocalic position.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː		ʊ ʊː
Mid	ɛ ɛː		ɔ ɔː
Low		a aː

• Vowels /ɛ, a, ɔ, ʊ/ may have a [ɪ] vowel off-glide heard as [ɛᶦ, æᶦ, ɔᶦ, ʊᶦ], when preceding a laminal-palatal consonant.

Phoneme/Sound	Allophones	Notes
/i/ [i]	[ɪ]	Is heard when in lax or unstressed positions.
/ɛ/ [ɛ]	[e]	Can also be heard when before a laminal-palatal consonant or a semivowel.
/a/ [ä]	[æ]	May also be heard when following a laminal-palatal consonant.
/ɔ/ [ɔ]	[o]	Can also be heard when in stressed positions.
/ʊ/ [ʊ]	[u]	Is always heard when in word-final position.

Further reading

• Auld, Glenn. 2002. The role of the computer in learning Ndjébbana. Language learning and technology 6(2): 41-58.
• Auld, Glenn. 2002. Computer assisted Ndjébbana. Practically Primary 7(3): 20-22.
• Auld, Glenn. 2005. The literacy practices of Kunibídji children: Text, technology and transformation. PhD thesis, University of Ballarat.
• Capell, Arthur. 1942. Languages of Arnhem Land, North Australia. Oceania, 12 (4), 364-392.
• Elwell, Vanessa. 1977. Multilingualism and lingua francas among Australian Aborigines: A case study of Maningrida. Honours Thesis, Australian National University.
• Elwell, Vanessa. 1982. Some social factors affecting multilingualism among Aboriginal Australians: a case study of Maningrida. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 36: 83-103.
• Green, Rebecca. 2003. Proto Maningrida within Proto Arnhem: evidence from verbal inflectional suffixes. In N. Evans (ed.), The non-Pama-Nyungan languages of Northern Australia: comparative studies of the continent's most linguistically complex region (pp. 369–421). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
• Handelsmann, Robert. 1996. Needs Survey of Community Languages: Central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory (Maningrida and Outstations). Report to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, Canberra.
• Jones, Peter. 1987. The Kunibidji Bilingual Program Handbook. Maningrida School: Maningrida.
• Maningrida CEC's Literature Production Centre, 2009. My own Ndjébbana dictionary : a b d dj e i k l m n ng nj o r rd rl rn rr u w ya. Winnelie, N.T.: Maningrida CEC.
• McKay, Graham R. 1984. Stop Alternations in Ndjébbana (Kunibidji) + Comments on Waters' Comments on Gemination in Rembarnga. Pacific Linguistics. Series A: Occasional Papers.
• McKay, Graham R. 1996. Body parts, possession marking and nominal classes in Ndjébbana. In H. Chappell and W. McGregor (eds) The Grammar of inalienability : a typological perspective on body part terms and the part-whole relation. Berlin; New York : M. de Gruyter. pp. 293–326.
• McKay, Graham. 2000. Ndjébbana. In R.M.W. Dixon & B.J. Blake (eds), The handbook of Australian languages: Volume 5 (pp. 155–354). Melbourne: Oxford University Press.